The Effect of Repetition on Incidental Legal Vocabulary Learning Through Long-Term Exposure to Authentic Videos

Abstract

This study intends to identify the minimal number of repetitions needed for successful incidental learning of legal vocabulary after watching authentic videos as a leisure time activity. It also examines the effectiveness of long-term exposure to authentic videos for incidental learning of legal vocabulary. For this purpose, the participants were distributed between two groups: the incidental and the control one. The incidental group had to watch 5 hours of authentic TV documentary Forensic Files. Fourteen target legal words had from 4 to 46 repetitions in the videos. The post-tests measured incidental learning of two aspects of the target words: form recognition and meaning recall. The overall results revealed that watching five hours of authentic videos leads to incidental learning of legal vocabulary. The results of the form recognition post-test suggest that the possible minimal number of repetitions for successful incidental learning of this aspect of the legal words may lie around 14 repetitions. No definite conclusion could be drawn about the minimal number of repetitions necessary for successful recall of the meanings of the target words.